Well, I’ve decided to give it a go. My first ever attempts at dealing with a garden seem to be passable, the carrots are sprouting, there’s signs of life with the spring onions…
BUT I was taken by the packets of chilli seeds. So I got some Tabasco seeds. And a ‘propogator’ - errrr small plastic box. Anyway, does anyone have any advice of what I should do? Bear in mind I’m in England, so we’re dealing with mild summers, with 90oF being unusual.
I grew chiles while in Africa, both in a Sahel country and in a more temperate climate. Seems they just prefer direct sun and lots of water and good drainage. They grew like weeds.
We’ve grown chilis here in Boston, where we tend to have a cold & long spring. Colder, on average, than most of England’s spring, I seem to recall. Summer comes late, but can get quite hot. 90+ degree days are common, though usually not constant day-after-day. The hottest part of summer tends to be shortlived and often confined to July & August.
We started them in a sprouter-type thing which was basically a styrofoam box you put wet dirt in, with a clear plastic lid to keep in the heat & moisture (maybe that’s what a propagator is?).
We started them in late March/early April, then transplanted them to an Earth Box* in May. Didn’t leave them outside overnight or on cool days 'til the end of June.
They do, indeed, grow like weeds, and if you keep them watered and give them the strongest sunlight you can find, they should produce peppers for you.
We brought ours inside in the fall. They lost all their leaves over the winter and just sort of went dormant, then in the spring they brought forth new leaves and a new bumper crop of peppers. The peppers were much hotter the 2d year, then in the third year they mellowed out a bit. They died over the third winter. 
- Note on Earth Boxes (no idea if they are available in the UK) http://www.earthbox.com - we love our Earth Boxes - they are especially good for growing tomatoes (better than other containers, IMO) because the plants have constant access to water.
Thanks, that’s all music to my ears 
Yes, the propogator is basically a mini-glasshouse. Which can sit in my east-facing window and do its best.
Hmmm you say don’t leave them outside on ‘cool’ nights - can you define that? Around here, anything that can’t survive a frost is considered a summer plant.
By ‘cool’ I mean anything below 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
Let’s see, multiply by 9/5 and add 32 - that’s 131 Celsius?
Hm, that can’t be right… 
And I would not trust chilis, especially young plants, to survive a frost.
We’re past frost. I’ve enough sense to read the seed packets which say “sow after danger of frost”
Fine…honestly, here is MILD - anything outside 55-85F will be newsworthy. I do not jest. As long as chillis can cope with consistent mildness…
Many chiles ARE weeds, in that they’re what you might call “trash plants” that, in their native habitat, often grow where you don’t want them. Then again, so are pineapples, I’m told.
You can’t really go wrong with direct sunlight. Mild weather is no big deal, so long as you don’t dip towards the freezing point. If you were at 40F or below for more than a day or two, I’d worry… but if you’re growing them in a greenhouse thingy, even that shouldn’t be any big deal… but they won’t survive a hard frost.